Woman Receives Letter In Mail For Her 19th Birthday 45 Years Later

New York resident and retired NYPD employee Susan Heifetz received a birthday letter in early April 2014 that was post marked June 26, 1969. The gentle woman was brought to tears when she received the letter — send from her late mother — and discovered a lipstick kiss on the back of the envelope, a hallmark signature of her mother’s.

Almost as touching as the long-lost letter being reunited with Heifetz is how it made it to her. Susan now lives in Floral Park. A man living in Marine Park — the location of the apartment complex where Heifetz grew up — called her and explained that he had mail that was addressed in her name.

The letter from her mother was not the only piece of mail she received from the man.

Also included was a piece of mail from a man she was dating at the time. When the man wrote the letter to her, he was being shipped out to fight in the Vietnam War. In the letter he explains to her that he tried calling several times, but that no one answered, ”but of course, in 1969, we didn’t have answering machines,” Heifetz pointed out in an interview with NBC News.

When questioned by NBC, a representative from the United States Postal Services claimed it was highly unlikely that the letters were lost in their system, although they admit that 7 trillion pieces of mail have been handled by the postal service since 1969 — and that not all of that mail has made it to the intended destination.

The letter could not have arrived at a better time. Heifetz is planning on moving to Nevada. In fact, she was in the process of packing up her belongings when she got the phone call from the man in Marine Park. Heifetz is going to Nevada as part of her retirement plans. She is going to join her brother and his family there.

If the letters had shown up just a few weeks later, or the man that received them would have put off calling her for just a short period of time, there is a very good chance that Susan Heifetz would never have received them and the beautiful moment that, ”gave her closure,” would have been lost forever.